Category: Jo.e Pulse

Hi Joe,

I keep finding myself in situations where I wish I were proficient in CSS and HTML.

Instead of waiting for one of our developers to change something on a form or a landing page, I wish I could do it myself.

As a MOPs professional, do you think it’s worth learning these basic programming skills?

Thanks,

Technically-Inclined Thomas

What a great question, Thomas!

The short answer is: yes, it’s absolutely worth learning basic programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Now let me tell you why. 

With the rise in popularity of AI programs, it may seem pointless to learn — there are even tutorials for building a website using ChatGPT.

But today’s MOPs professionals wear all sorts of hats — which means there’s value in having a robust toolkit at your disposal.

When it comes to building a MOPs skillset, I’m a big proponent of learning as much as one can about the things that happen in MOPs.

The reason? It’s a great way to comprehensively understand what’s happening at each stage of a process and why it happens. This way, if something breaks, you’ll also know ways to fix it.

 

3 reasons to learn CSS & HTML

Learning CSS and HTML can greatly improve your standing as a MOPs professional and make you more efficient. Here are three reasons to support that.

1. Reduces your reliance on IT

In most companies, since CSS documents are used to make changes to website colors, fonts, and other design elements, it’s usually owned by the IT or website maintenance team.

So if you’re looking to implement a fancy form in a landing page, you’d likely depend on this team to make those changes.

For big companies with many competing priorities for the website, this could mean a long wait time for a simple form.

With enough CSS knowledge, you can make the changes yourself without requiring the help of another team. 

2. Increases your technical knowledge

Most people know that an engine powers a car, so if the car’s not working, there’s likely something wrong with the engine.

But a deeper understanding of the engine’s workings and various components can help uncover the problem.

The same is true with CSS and HTML.

The more you know about these programming languages, the better positioned you are to take a look under the hood and find the issue that needs to be solved.  

As a bonus, you get satisfaction from adjusting the website and having it work the way you want.

3. Sets you apart

Having CSS knowledge — or even a certification — will be a big differentiator when you’re looking for your next role.

MOPs recruiters understand the value of this skill set, and they’ll be interested in bringing someone in that can reduce the time spent bringing something to life on the company website. 

 

Teach yourself to code

These three benefits are just some ways that increasing your technical understanding can help advance your career.

The best part? You can get started right now.

There’s a wealth of materials you can take advantage of and guide your learning.

For example, W3schools has free online tutorials with great examples and practical exercises to help you consolidate your knowledge.

Other resources include:

• Codeacademy
• Udemy, and
• web.dev.

You can leverage these options to learn in the way that makes the most sense to you.

You’ve got this,

Joe Pulse

Hey Joe,

My team and I have been working with an agency to create our emails — but I’m worried we may be paying too much.

Every time we send a request, it takes weeks to deliver. That makes it a challenge to get to market as quickly as we need to.

How much should agencies charge for an email? And how long should it take to create them?

Thanks,

Cost-conscious Caroline

Hi Caroline,

Thanks so much for bringing up this question.

Email is an important marketing tool for B2C and B2B businesses. It’s tough to feel that your partners aren’t doing the most they can to make your campaigns both efficient and effective.

Trust me, you’re not alone.

 

The truth is, it depends.

I know this may sound like a wishy-washy answer, but bear with me.

When it comes to how an agency scopes out an email project, it depends on:

• the size of the campaign you’re giving them
• how many other clients they’re dealing with, and
• how long they’ve been in the space.

These are all things that can dictate the price tag on an email campaign — as well as how much time it takes the agency to deliver the end product.

 

Hold your agency accountable

You likely first engaged your agency because you lacked the right resources and skills to create emails in-house. And that’s totally fine. It’s the same with many marketing teams.

That said, you still have options to hold your agency accountable or find ways to reduce how much of your budget goes to email. Here are three ways.

 

1. Have open discussions

Have frequent and frank discussions with your agency partners to set key performance indicators.

This can include the:

• cost per email
• time spent to develop each email, and
• performance-related metrics.

 

2. Ask questions

Ask your agency questions so they can let you in on their process and build a stronger relationship with you.

Here are a few examples:

• How are they building your emails?
• What tools are they using?
• Why does it take them two weeks to deliver one email?

 

3. Know that there’s an alternative

You do have the option to bring email in-house — and that doesn’t have to be scary.

With a platform like Knak, for example, you can build emails in 20 minutes and be sure that they’ll reach the right people, render properly, and offer an on-brand experience to your readers.

And you don’t need a whole team to do it.

This last one doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to your agency partners.

 

Leverage your agency

Agencies are built on bold, creative thinking, so tap into that.

You can work with your agency team to build the next standout marketing campaign in your industry.

And if you feel you still need help with email, Revenue Pulse has an exclusive partnership with Knak — and they’d be happy to help you use the digital platform to its fullest potential.

You’ll be set up for success whichever way you choose to go.

You’ve got this,

Joe Pulse

P.S. Have a question? Contact us here.

Hi Jo,

I’m hoping you can help me.

My executives tasked me with building out the Revenue Operations function at our company, and I’m not quite sure where to start.

Should I be talking to my peers across sales and marketing? Or should I be doing a lot of external research?

I’m not even sure that all my colleagues know what RevOps is—and I really want to make sure they’re bought into the changes that will come down the line.

What should I do first?

Thank you,

Directionless Dana

Hi, Dana. This is really exciting!

You’ve got the chance to define what RevOps looks like at your company and build out the capabilities that make the most sense for your teams.

How cool is that?

But you’re right, being successful will require thoughtful engagement and planning before you can make any changes. Checking in and asking for advice is already a great first step.

To help you make the most of that momentum, here are three other strategies you can use to set a solid foundation for your RevOps team.

 

1. Define RevOps

You mentioned that your executive team has tasked you with this initiative—but are you all on the same page regarding what RevOps is and what it looks like?

Setting a definition that everyone can agree on will help ensure alignment and prevent any confusion (and headaches!) down the road.

Let’s define RevOps: Revenue operations is a business function that’s built to maximize an organization’s revenue potential across the funnel. Instead of having your revenue operations capabilities live under sales, marketing, and customer success, you can have them operate as a single cohesive unit with accountability throughout the full customer journey. This centralized approach helps build a culture that’s intentionally focused on operationalizing revenue—rather than having it be a byproduct of other important work.

Once you’ve defined RevOps within the context of your organization, you can move on to the next step in the planning process. Read our post ‘How to Explain RevOps to Your MOPs Team‘ for more advice.

 

2. Identify your capabilities

Identify where your RevOps capabilities are—and where they aren’t.

It’s more than likely that your company already has some revenue operations capabilities distributed across your sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

Your job will be to:

• look at these teams
• identify where the work is happening, and
• create a roadmap for how those siloed functions can move into your new RevOps structure.

This is also an opportunity to understand how tasks are currently completed. Our posts on finding the right reporting tools for your RevOps team and how to optimize content can help.

Ask questions like these to get started:

• What tools are your teams using?
• Are two teams using different tools for the same tasks?
• How are your peers talking about revenue operations in each vertical?
• What data are they looking at and how are they using it to make decisions?

 

With a clear picture of the current state, you’ll have an easier time mapping out the necessary changes to centralize your activities and align incentives across the board.

 

3. Build your RevOps network

Like with any big initiative that requires a lot of change, you will need stakeholders on your side.

My advice? Have one-on-one conversations with leaders across sales, marketing, and customer success to talk about the value of RevOps.

Talk to them about what they’ll get out of this new team, and paint them a picture of what the organization could look like over the next one to five years.

Don’t forget: you’re running a very strategic project.

You’re reshaping how your company thinks about revenue and creating a resource for making the data you collect more impactful.

So don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it and have important conversations with other leaders at your organization.

You’ve got this,

Jo Pulse

Hi Jo,

I keep hearing about the cost and risk of having dirty data in your MOPs systems, but I don’t know how to check if my company’s data is up to snuff.

Do you have any advice on rooting out dirty data and preventing it from happening?

Thanks,

Data-driven Dave

This is a great question, Dave!

It’s one we should all be talking about.

Let me start by making sure we’re on the same page about dirty data (sometimes called rogue data).

The short version is that dirty data is any data with erroneous information.

The slightly longer version is that there are different types of dirty data, including:

• duplicates
• errors and typos
• outdated information
• prospects that don’t align with your target persona, and
• incomplete entries (e.g., without an email address).

Examples of dirty data:

For example, you could have an entry from someone who no longer works at a company — so any email sent to them will bounce back.

Or you could have an entry with a typo, like an email address ending in “.con” instead of “.com.”

Duplicate (or triplicate) entries are another common data problem. I’ve worked with companies with thousands of duplicates in their database, which is not sustainable or practical.

 

Dirty data is a mess

Dirty data can indeed be costly.

Email reputation

Bad email reputation is a huge issue.

For instance, if you’re sending marketing emails to people who shouldn’t be in your database and they mark your email as spam, that counts as a ding against your email sender reputation.

Your sender reputation is a measure that internet service providers take to determine whether they will deliver your emails to the inboxes of the people on their network.

The lower your score, the lower the chance your email reaches your audience. It can be really hard to recover from a low score.

Database costs

Some martech databases will charge per the number of entries in your database.

For companies with thousands of duplicates, that can mean they’re spending way more than they should—which isn’t great.

The costs also add up when you have to spend on tools that clean that data.

Having that many duplicates also gives you a false understanding of how many people are actually in your audience. It can lead you to make decisions that don’t necessarily make sense for your business.

 

Steps to avoid dirty data

So, how do you stay ahead of dirty data?

You can do it in-house, but it does require some heavy lifting (which we can help with).

Here are my suggestions.

Create a data hygiene plan

Bloated, inaccurate databases cause all kinds of problems.

Data hygiene is a company-wide project that gets your entire team on the same page.

It will standardize how people collect and handle data across systems and conduct periodic audits to check the quality of your data and sources.

We wrote a Tough Talks Made Easy article outlining the steps you’ll want to take.

Build habits into your processes

Every six to 12 months, you should perform checks on your database to identify and remove any dirty data.

This process goes beyond just looking for duplicates and errors.

It requires a concerted effort to identify the people who:

• no longer fit within your target persona, or
• haven’t engaged with your content for a particular period.

Take proactive steps

Dealing with dirty data shouldn’t just be a corrective action.

There are also things you can do to avoid creating those errors in the first place.

For example, duplicate entries tend to happen when teams import lists from multiple sources (e.g., Marketo and Salesforce) without checking for repeat entries.

If you’re importing data, ensure there’s a check in place to flag duplicates.

You should also clean up any list (e.g., check if there’s a missing email address) before it gets migrated.

Lastly, building a process to identify and delete common bogus email addresses (like [email protected] or [email protected]) can help keep your data clean.

Normalize your data

You’ve probably seen that some companies and teams use full country names, like Canada, while others use country codes, like CA.

The best way to keep your data clean is to normalize your entries so there aren’t discrepancies in your data set.

These might sound like small changes, but they’re important ones. Trust me, once you start doing these things, you’ll be able to have a lot more trust in your data.

You’ve got this, and if you need more advice, let us know.

Jo Pulse

P.S. Never miss an update! Follow us on LinkedIn

Hi Jo,

I’ve been trying to decide whether I should take a different approach to hire for our marketing operations team.

I’ve spoken to recruiter friends, and many are taking a remote-first approach and considering international candidates.

Does that make sense?

Thanks,

Hiring Henry

Hi, Henry. Thanks for raising this question.

The way I see it, you can’t afford not to make your MOPs team remote first. This statement may sound bold but bear with me.

The global MOPs talent pool is small. There are some pretty big gaps between the number of people companies need to run marketing operations and the people available to take on the jobs.

As MOPs recruiters, we really need to think about how we can find, attract and retain the right people. A flexible, collaborative work environment can go a long way to achieving that.

 

Change your hiring approach

There are many benefits to hiring a multi-location, remote-first team, including:

• a broader hiring pool so that you can better find the right people for the job
• access to better MOPs candidates, many talented MOPs professionals prefer to work remotely
• cost savings from hiring people that live in places with a lower cost of living, and
• more flexibility means your team can hand off responsibilities and address issues across time zones.

The reality is that MOPs professionals can perform their roles entirely online. You can track an employee’s performance regardless of whether they’re in the office or not. Plus, many professionals in this space prefer to have their own space for problem-solving and optimizing their marketing automation efforts. You need to be able to give them that option if you want them to accept your job offer.

 

Putting it into practice

Building a remote team may seem like a daunting task. But it relies on many of the same best practices you’re already using to hire people.

Think about how you communicate the role to people.

• Are you highlighting that it’s a remote opportunity?
• Have you thought about compensation and whether it’s dependent on the person’s location?
• Are you targeting people that live outside of your company’s headquarters?

These questions will help you tell MOPs professionals that you’re open to building a team that makes sense to them.

Consider how you can set these people up for success.

• Are your current professional development and reporting structures appropriate for a remote-first environment?
• Do you have tactics for identifying the people who might be struggling and recognizing the people that are succeeding — even if they’re at a distance?
• Showing your team members that the company supports them will encourage trust.

Ensure that your remote team has the right tools for collaboration and communication.

Even if they prefer working remotely, people still appreciate having points of connection with their peers so that they can get the work done effectively — and build a strong team culture at the same time.

Have you and your leaders thought about how you can standardize your company culture in both in-person and virtual instances? This will be an important consideration for many potential hires.

Remember: Recruitment isn’t just about getting people through the door, you also have to set them up for success. You can’t just hire people remotely, you have to be able to retain people remotely as well.

 

I know this is a lot to think about — but you’ve got this.

Jo Pulse

Hi Joe,

I love my job in marketing ops, but I constantly feel that my time is spent on tactical tasks and putting out fires rather than more strategic initiatives.

I know I have a lot to offer, but unless we hire more people to run our marketing ops efforts, I’m not sure I’ll be able to share those insights.

What are the conversations I need to have to ensure that MOPs is seen as more than just a tactical function and brought into the fold more strategically?

 

Thanks,

Strategic Stacey

 

I have to tell you, Stacey, you’re not alone.

So often, marketing ops folks are seen as doers instead of thinkers. Since they’re left to focus on executing tasks, they don’t have the bandwidth to play a more strategic role in their organization.

This decision is to the detriment of the company.

 

The strategic value of MOPs

As a MOPs professional, you have a unique perspective on the organization and any gaps it might have.

You can add valuable insights that inform:

• how your business moves forward
• what tools to invest in, and
• who to hire.

But that hardly matters if you don’t have the time and space to think about these things.

In our latest article, Joe Pulse offers three steps on how to enhance the value of your MOPs team.

 

Follow these steps

What are the steps you can take to maximize your MOPs team’s efforts and showcase your strategic value?

I’ve thought of three that you can consider.

 

1. Get buy-in from your manager 

If your direct lead isn’t a marketing ops professional, they might not realize all the ways you can add value.

Start by getting them to approve a certain amount of time a week that you can spend on strategic thinking for your team.

This strategic thinking time can be spent:

• mapping out the future structure for MOPs at your organization
• redesigning a process between MOPs and sales that could be more efficient, or
• having conversations with other technology owners (e.g. Salesforce) to better learn how they integrate with your marketing automation tools.

Once you can think more strategically, you can approach your manager with specific recommendations on how they can boost the role of operations at the organization—and the resulting value of doing that.

Here’s a tip: remember to delegate.

A big part of showing that you’re ready to take on more strategic thinking is removing some of the more tactical elements from your plate and upskilling other members of your team to take them on.

This leads me to my next point.

 

2. Make sure your MOPs team is the right size

For your MOPs team to really deliver on its potential, you need to have a team of people you can rely on.

Beyond the standard daily tasks, there needs to be room for when things go wrong and for thinking about the future.

Day-to-day projects shouldn’t fill 100% of your team’s time.

This is an important consideration that you should bring up when you’re talking to your leadership team.

I know this is a tough one. It can be hard to make the argument that things could be better when they’re already running well.

After all, people don’t notice when MOPs is running properly, only if it’s broken.

But you shouldn’t let that stop you from having the conversation.

Map out where your team is spending time now—and then talk about where you could offload some work to better spend your time by driving more value for the organization. That’ll get their attention.

 

3. Set real metrics for MOPs

You know this, the performance metrics your marketing and sales teams use aren’t the right way to evaluate MOPs performance.

You need a specific set of metrics that are tailored to what your team is doing and how it truly provides value to the business.

To get this right—and better show your value to the rest of the organization—take the time to collaborate with the teams you work with to set up a framework that makes sense.

 

You’ve got this (and if you need more help, let us know),

Joe Pulse

Hi Jo,

I’ve been feeling a little isolated in my marketing ops role lately.

It often feels like I’m left to my own devices, and I don’t always have visibility into what other teams are doing and how they’re doing it.

I think there could be a lot of value in connecting the dots between marketing ops and marketing more, but I’m not sure how to best go about it. Will people get offended if I just start asking questions?

Thanks,

Questioning Quinn

Hi, Quinn. You have no idea how much I resonate with how you’re feeling.

When I first started in marketing ops, it was because I raised my hand to run Marketo at my company. Like you, I was pretty much left to my own devices—not even my boss knew what I was doing, really.

It’s an unfortunate reality for a lot of MOps professionals. Depending on the size of the business, a MOps “team” might be a single person wearing way too many hats.

Plus, if a company hasn’t figured out where MOps lives yet, it may not even be clear if you report to Sales, Marketing, or RevOps. The lines of communication with each of those teams might be tenuous, at best.

With this amount of uncertainty in the role, it’s no wonder you have questions!

My advice? Ask away.

When you touch as many parts of the revenue production process as marketing operations inevitably does, you need to have awareness and visibility into what other people are doing. Then, and only then, can your company truly optimize revenue.

Not quite sure where to start? Don’t worry. Here are my three tips that should help you get the ball rolling.

 

Take initiative—with some help

Whether you’re new to the role or have been there a while, it’s always valuable to build relationships with people in other teams.

That said, depending on your company’s culture, asking for their time or for more visibility into the work they’re doing might feel like you’re overstepping.

If that’s the case, talk to your boss first.

Talk them through why it’d be valuable for you to build these bridges, and ask for their support in making it happen.

 

Connect the dots between your systems

Most people that are in charge of a technology platform will understand that it’s worth talking about how their system and your system share data.

For instance, if you’re running Marketo, set up a chat with the Salesforce admin at your company.

By sharing knowledge about each platform, you’ll be able to collaboratively identify any redundancies. If there’s a task that can be better done with one platform versus the other.

 

Set the standard for collaboration

If teams operate in silos, it’s because they don’t know not to.

If you start talking to people and making it a normal activity to share information and collaborate, then others are more likely to see the value and follow that behavior.

From one MOps professional to another, I’m sure you’re a proactive individual. So I know you won’t shy away from reshaping how your teams talk to each other.

Trust me, you only stand to win.

Even if nothing changes and you still have issues getting the right information from other teams, you’ll have shown initiative and added some skills to your tool belt. And that will look really nice on your resume when the time comes to move up or move on.

You’ve got this,

Jo Pulse

Hi Joe,

My boss just reached out and wants us to try out a new project that we’ve never done before.

I’ve never even heard of some of the things she’s talking about. I told her that I’d look into it, but I’m not sure where to start.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Clueless Corey

Hi, Corey!

We’ve all been there. Our boss sends an email or Slack message asking whether we can run a brand new type of campaign that we’ve never even seen before. We read the request again. Hyperventilate a little. Draft three different responses, and finally settle on “Let me look into that.” But what’s next?

 

Start with research

First off, telling your boss you’d look into it is a great first step.

It shows initiative and that you’re ready to find a way to make it work for your team. So many people worry about not having the answer right away, and they end up saying “yes” to things they can’t actually accomplish, or “no” to things that might actually make a positive difference. The fact that you’ve given yourself the time to research the feasibility is great. Nice job.

There are two main things you’re going to have to do before you get back to your boss:

• The first is figuring out what the ask actually is and how it’s typically addressed.
• The second is to map out the scope of the project, while also understanding the value that will come from implementing it.

Let’s dive into these two things a little more.

 

1. Understand the ask

A big part of what your boss (and their boss) is going to want to know is how much money, time, and resources the project is going to cost.

Before you can even map out the scope of the project, you need to have a clear picture of how you’re actually going to execute it. Here are some ways to go about that.

Tap into your network

The truth is, it’s unlikely that this is the first time someone is looking into this project. The marketing ops community has tons of people that are willing to share their experiences and answer questions — so ask.

Check out relevant forums

There is a rich collection of forums on various marketing automation topics — you’ve probably already used them to answer questions before. Revisit these and post your questions so members can answer. 

See if there’s a company dedicated to this particular issue

A lot of companies in the marketing automation space started out trying to solve a particular issue.

Take Knak, our sister company, for example. They exist in part because they realized that Marketo didn’t have robust email editing capabilities. They wanted to give marketers more freedom to design emails.

There might be another company out there that’s built around helping marketers execute the type of project you want to run. We may even be able to help.

 

2. Figure out the scope

Once you know what the project will look like, then you can assess how much it will cost.

This will go beyond the price tag of a new tool. You also have to consider how many people will need to be involved and for how long, and whether it makes more sense to bring in a consultant.

On the flip side, you should also consider the value the project will bring to your team. How much time will it save? How many new leads will it generate?

This may be the point where you realize that the project isn’t actually feasible or sensible for your team.

Don’t be afraid to say no to your boss.

As long as you can show that there’s a good reason for it and that you’re looking out for the best interests of the company, they’ll understand a “no.”

All that said, don’t let finances or the fact that a project seems to make sense for your business be the only factors that guide your decision-making.

Sometimes, it’s the projects that look banal on the outside that end up making the most impact in the long run.

Maybe everything works fine as it is, but it’s worth experimenting and fostering a culture of innovation and iteration within your team. That way, you can avoid becoming complacent and instead position your company as a leader within the space.

 

You’ve got this,

Joe Pulse

Hi Jo,

I recently started a career in marketing automation and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.

It feels like I’m expected to know so many different things and I’m not sure I can keep up.

I want to keep building my skill set and learning as much as I can, but I don’t know where to start. Should I prioritize soft skills or learn about as many automation tools as possible?

Can you help me?

Thanks,
Learning Laura

Hey Laura,

You’ve hit on a challenge that I think a lot of people face in marketing operations (MOPs).

The marketing technology space is always evolving. In fact, it feels like there’s a new platform or solution every week. For marketing ops professionals that are seen by the rest of their organization as the guardians of that technology (even if they’ve never worked with most of it before), there’s a lot of pressure to have an opinion about each and every tool. But that’s not really possible, is it?

At the same time, MOPs covers a large scope of functions including:

• content creation
• campaign production
• reporting
• marketing automation, and
• CRM management.

Many companies are only just figuring out that they need multiple people to fill those different roles.

This means that marketing ops professionals tend to be expected to have a large breadth of knowledge and, as you said, that’s overwhelming.

So, how do you prioritize your learning and skill-building time so that it’s most effective for you and your organization? I’ve come up with a handful of suggestions below.

 

1. Build on what you already know

Let’s make one thing crystal clear: you do not have to be a specialist in every single automation tool.

That said, there’s also no rule saying you can’t be proficient in more than one of them. If you want to expand your technical knowledge, I’d suggest sticking close to what you’re already familiar with.

For example, if you’re managing Marketo for your company and you’ve been asked to bring on a cool new tool that integrates with the system, that could be a good candidate for you. If you’re interested, see if there’s a way to dive deep into that new solution and get certified in it. Trust me, your leaders will be thrilled that someone wants to build knowledge in a technology the company is using.

Another thing to remember is that automation principles are the same across all tools. So, if that is the part of the tool that you love, then you can likely be an automation expert across multiple tools.

 

2. Lean on your community

One of the truly unique things about the marketing automation space is that there is a massive community of professionals willing to share their knowledge.

As the space keeps changing and growing, we all know that we don’t know everything. That makes us eager to help others when they come up against a challenge we may have faced before. I for one love getting messages from people in my network and helping them navigate issues on Marketo or in any other aspect of marketing operations.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Check in with other people using the same tools. And if you feel you don’t have the network yet, start building it with the help of communities like MO Pros.

 

3. Practice your soft skills

Your technical skills will be key for succeeding in marketing ops, but there are also some really important soft skills that you should be honing from the get-go.

Among the most important is the ability to translate what you’re being asked to do into technical steps, and communicate those steps back in a way that’s easy to understand.

Ultimately, you need to build common ground with your leaders and stakeholders so that there’s as little room for miscommunication as possible. My advice? A good diagram goes a long way.

Another important skill to practice is puzzle-solving.

So much of marketing automation is built on logic, and you’ll be responsible for finding the easiest, most effective, and most scalable solution to any problem that arises.

Part of that is about being curious and being open to exploring new ways of doing things—and the other part is tapping into your logical brain and uncovering the right patterns.

So, if you don’t have a puzzle book on your bedside table, maybe you should put that on the wishlist for your next birthday.

You’ve got this,
Jo Pulse

Hi Joe,

I’m not sure if this happens to you, but every time I try to talk to my parents about what it is I do in marketing ops, I get nowhere. Regardless of how I describe it to them, they always seem to walk away from the conversation with more questions than they started with. Do you have any suggestions for how to make it easier to understand?

Thanks,
Tired Tim

Tim, don’t worry, we’ve all been there. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a conversation with a friend or family member where I start telling them about my job while secretly wishing that they’ll say something like “Oh, marketing operations! Yeah, I’ve heard about that.” It just doesn’t happen. Instead, I either get to watch their eyes glaze over as I dive into why marketing ops isn’t the same as marketing, or spend way too much time answering questions until they finally have a sense of what it is I do. Neither is particularly fun. 

With many of these conversations under my belt, I’ve managed to come up with a handful of strategies that seem to do the trick. Try them out and let me know how they work out for you.

 

1. Keep it simple

Marketing operations is inherently a hard thing to describe—particularly to people who don’t have much exposure to this space. The fact that it’s a relatively new function, that it’s embedded in technology, and that it has so many moving parts makes it pretty hard to grasp at a surface level. That’s why I suggest keeping your descriptions as simple as possible. 

• Avoid using jargon that might raise more questions. Remember, marketing ops is practically a different language, so you’ll need to use words that make sense to the person you’re talking to.
• Try not to get too deep in the weeds. The more detailed you get, the more things you’re going to have to explain. 
• Connect the dots between what you do and other business functions. If you tell people that you organize information, do the work to understand customers, and manage things on the back-end, they’ll be able to paint a clearer picture for themselves. 

With this in mind, I tend to say something like “I manage the software that allows companies to run their marketing” or “I help businesses understand how their investments in marketing convert to sales.” Simple, yet comprehensive. 

 

2. Use a metaphor

Another thing you can do is use a metaphor that makes marketing operations more relatable to what they know. Here’s one that’s worked quite well for me. 

Marketing operations professionals are like the mechanics of the marketing world. Think about a factory line, for instance. The line is producing the different marketing materials (e.g. content and design) and there are machines (i.e. marketing automation software) that support that production. Those machines then need mechanics that set them up and fix them when they’re not operating properly. That’s what I do. 

 

3. If all else fails, stop trying

It’s always great if you can talk about your job with your friends and family, but at the end of the day, it’s OK if they don’t fully get it. The only thing that’s truly important is that you know what your job is and that you love doing it. As long as you can showcase that, your loved ones will just be happy that you’re happy—and there’s not much better than that.

 

You’ve got this,
Joe Pulse